The machining of large pieces of wood or wood related material, particularly of a type which occur when large slabs or flitches of timber require machining, pose particular problems for the machinist if a refined or high level of machining and finish are required of the finished product of the tool. Traditionally timber logs are prepared in a timber mill by way of large band sawing operations or small scale operations including preliminary machining which can be accomplished by chainsaw mills. Such mills are readily available and provide a tracking or guide system for operating a chainsaw such as a horizontally positioned log or piece of work can be sawn horizontally into a series of slabs by the controlled movement and guiding of a large chainsaw with the use of an apparatus known as a chainsaw mill.
While such machining accomplishes a task of reducing a wooden log to a series of slabs or flitches, the very nature of chainsaw mill operations and even industrial band saw mills results in a very rough and preliminary machining finish which leaves the task for the furniture builder or cabinet maker to dress the slab product into a more suitable form for production of furniture and the like. Such machining is traditionally accomplished by way of joiners and thicknesses, which plane the surface of a wooden slab to the required dimensions. Similarly drum sanding devices can accomplish a similar result. However, such devices when put to the task of machining large dimensions of slabs of timber result in very heavy duty and expensive apparatus which is not readily available outside of the commercial and industrial sphere. One object of the invention is to provide an improved guide for a machine tool or a tool drive adapted for surface dressing and finishing large slabs of timber or similar products where the guide can be readily adjusted and fine tuned to control the action of a cutting tool and/or sanding tool.
Whilst prior art machines are available for mounting cutting and sanding tools in the manner of the machine described above; when large cutting tools are used or sanding disks having a substantial surface or working area in contact with the work piece, prior art tools are often found to be deficient particularly in their inability to fine tune and very precisely align the working face of the tool in a plane corresponding precisely with the plane of the work piece in question.
One object of the invention is to provide an improved machine tool guide.